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Description: | bound volume (dimensions 54 x 38 x 7) title inscr. on plate b.c. "Mr Gibbons and Mrs Gibbons"; inscr. on plate b.l. "T. Closterman pinx:"; s. on plate b.r. "I. Smith fecit et exc." CRE SMITH, John; (English; 1652-1743) AFTER CLOSTERMAN, Johann Baptist; (German; 1660-1713) Part of William Hunter's original bequest, this is one of three volumes which together contain 488 mezzotints, almost all made or published by John Smith. About two thirds are portraits of eminent late Stuart, early Hanoverian persons, and one third fancy and mythological subjects.
Instrumental in raising the standard of mezzotint portraits, Smith was the first British printmaker to gain a European reputation, and examples of his work were essential for any serious early to mid 18th century European print collection.
Hunter's set of volumes is a rare surviving example of a comprehensive collection of mezzotints compiled in the 1730s.
Grinling Gibbons, pictured here with his wife Elizabeth, was a celebrated wood-carver and sculptor, Master Carver to the Crown. The portrait was painted by John Closterman, a German artist who developed a successful career painting portraits in London, a high point being a commission to paint Queen Anne. Kneller also painted Gibbons' portrait and a print of that painting is included alongside this one in volume two, among a group of portraits of men of distinction from various fields, including politics, art and literature (Glaha 16239). | License: | http://www.hmag.gla.ac.uk/spirit/rights/ | Publisher: | Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, University of Glasgow | Rights holder: | Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, University of Glasgow | Subjects: | PORTRAIT : THREE-QUARTER LENGTH : AMORINI : CARVER IN WOOD : CHARLES II : EVELYN : BUST : MARBLE : PEARL : NECKLACE : ALBUM : VOLUME : HUNTER VOLUME : | Source: | Hunterian Museum | Creator: | Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, University of Glasgow | Identifier: | http://www.huntsearch.gla.ac.uk/cgi-bin/... | Language: | en-GB | Go to resource |
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